"Great Salt Lake has inlets but no outlets. The only way water escapes this inland sea is by evaporation. There have been days I felt the same about Salt Lake City. Our strength is our weakness. We are a valley hemmed in by mountains. We are a community protected/isolated (pick your own word) from the outside world.Utah is a state of paradox. Great Salt Lake embodies it. It is the liquid lie of the West, water in the desert no one can drink. Salt Lake City is a town of expressed and repressed passions. The world is welcome here. However, where and when and how the world can buy a drink when it visits has always been an issue. We are an urban people with a rural sensibility. It makes for a very rich ecotone, as they say in biology. Seek the edges if you want to find the diversity, truth and riches of Salt Lake City.?EUR??,,????'??

–Terry Tempest Williams,
from the 2002 Winter Olympics Official Program

On Halloween, Sunday, Oct. 31, photographer Steve Uzzell uses his own images to share some hints for keeping the creative process fresh. Then on Monday, Nov. 1, landscape architect Peter E. Walker, FASLA, will give attendees at the closing general session a peek at the design process behind his work on the World Trade Center Memorial in New York City.

Of course, the general sessions are just the beginning of what?EUR??,,????'???s on tap at the 2004 ASLA Meeting and EXPO. Visitors will have plenty of choices to make, with 79 educational sessions and 20 professional tour opportunities to pick from. And of course the EXPO itself, with close to 400 exhibitors giving attendees a chance to mingle and make significant and enduring connections.